This is personal for us.
If you've read our story here, you know that it was a hard fought process through a brutal perimenopause that led us to research CBD.
Originally, we tried 3-4 of the biggest brands out there and had bad effects from them which didn't match what research was showing.
It turns out that full spectrum CBD was NOT the same as CBD isolate if you have allergy or histamine issues.
That's roughly 40-60% of the population! (higher for women with progesterone leaving and as we get older).
With CBD isolate, all the side effects went away for me and I could get to the benefits that I desperately needed (anxiety, histamine response, sleep, etc).
As we said, this is personal.
Our entire family uses IndigoNaturals and we're the kind of people who filter the water, eat organic, and avoid PFOA in our food wrappers.
We're not messing around and our CBD is no different.
Here are the critical pieces when considering any brand of CBD:
- Source of CBD
- Type of Processing
- 3rd party testing (CRUCIAL)
- Ingredients
- Support
Let's walk through these as part of our guarantee of quality for you and your family.
Source of CBD
We have to start at the beginning with CBD.
It ultimately comes from a plant, the cannabis plant.
Technically it's industrial hemp but that just means cannabis with less than .3% THC (a legal description really).
Look...CBD is only as good as the plant it came from.
For that reason, we vetted multiple vendors and chose the one with the following attributes:
- FDA registered farm
- Organically grown industrial hemp that meets Federal requirements
- GMP certification
- THC Free
- CO2 cold extraction process
As the Chinese say, Well begun is half done.
There's some really questionable CBD on the market.
Lots of bogus stuff from China (speaking of which).
You can't buy CBD from Amazon as that is actually prohibited by Amazon so all those CBD products you find there are probably bad news.
It has to start with an FDA registered farm for industrial hemp and for us...it must be organically grown.
There isn't a Federal designation for organic yet with hemp but it can still be organically grown.
That will show up in the 3rd party testing for pesticides which we'll touch base on below.
So...that's our guarantee to you.
We will source the best CBD from the ground up.
Next up, how it's processed.
Type of Processing
Our CBD products have very high levels of CBD in them relative to just hemp oil.
Some of the big brands are pushing "hemp oil" which might have 4-8 mgs of CBD in a 30 ounce bottle
Big brands!
They're just trying to take advantage of people's lack of knowledge.
If you've read any of our articles, you know we focus on research.
NIH research.
Again, we use our CBD daily so we really want to understand all the ramifications.
- Studies on sleep are reflecting help around 160 mg
- Studies on anxiety and depression show peak neurogenesis (brain repair) at 300 mg.
- Studies on social anxiety and public speaking were looking at 600 mg
- Studies on schizophrenia and serious issues were up to 800 mg
Those are big numbers.
The neurogenesis piece is critical to mental health and addiction!
Lots of brands out there are at 250 mg...for an entire bottle!
So...since we actually want to help people, there needs to be sufficient CBD in the bottle.
To remove the CBD from the plant and concentrate is a feat of chemistry.
There are different ways to remove the CBD isolate.
Some involve heat and burning off specific substances in the hemp plant.
These generally involve butane or other petroleum products.
Others are cold-based and basically squeeze out the CBD through a series of steps.
The latter is much better. Much cleaner.
First, we don't want residual left-over agents from the butane or other heat-based processes.
For this reason, we require cold CO2 processing for our CBD isolate.
It's the cleaner option and even if 3rd party testing shows no solvents, we don't want that process. Small amounts of poison (butane, ie) is still poison.
There's always a lower range that residue could be under and still pass the 3rd party testing.
We want ZERO butane please.
CO2 cold processing is the answer.
That's what we do with IndigoNaturals CBD.
Speaking of 3rd party testing…
3rd party testing of CBD (CRUCIAL)
Don't take our word for it. In fact, don't take anyone's word for it.
When we first started IndigoNaturals, we asked 8 of the biggest brands for their testing.
Some made it available on their websites (ours is here) while others, you had to request it.
That's a bad sign.
Worst yet is to have no 3rd party testing.
If a CBD brand doesn't have 3rd party testing, that's a complete no-go.
I don't care how slick their marketing or what celebrity is hawking it.
Run...don't walk.
It means they either have something to hide or they don't care enough to run the tests. Which are expensive!
Either way, you're putting this in your body.
It must be tested.
The basic tests are:
- Level of cannabidoids (including CBD and THC)
- No pesticides
- No herbicides
- No heavy metals
- No solvents (such as butane from above)
- No mold
- No bacteria
We run through how to actually read the test at our 3rd Party Testing page.
We actually test the product twice (like we said...our whole family uses it).
We have it tested with the vendor for the raw hemp. We then run a separate final product test to be sure.
It's very important to do this right!
That also goes for what we put into our products.
Ingredients for Indigo Naturals CBD
Let's make this really simple with our oils.
- CBD Isolate (with the above qualifications)
- MCT oil (a popular extract from coconut oil) from organic coconut
We look at other brands with artificial flavors, colors, and more. Goodness...do they not know the research on gut inflammation! (see here)
CBD is absorbed best with lipids (fats).
Hence the base oil.
It keeps the liver busy so that CBD has a better bioavailability.
We picked MCT as our base oil for a reason.
The other two popular base oils are hemp oil (from the plant itself) and olive oil.
Both are more likely to cause a histamine or allergy response which is the very problem we ran into with Full Spectrum CBD from those big brands.
MCT oil is an extract (a simpler chain of fat) and cleaner than full oil make-up.
Check out full spectrum CBD versus CBD isolate for histamines to understand why.
This can literally be the difference between getting benefits out of CBD versus getting allergies. Check out our big review on histamine - it's the canary in the coal mine for hyperactive immune response!
Our newest batches actually have organic MCT oil (from organic coconut) to make our profile even cleaner.
You'll notice the different labels (bottles are also improved).
Finally, where we really shine.
Support for CBD Products
We have long running emails with clients delving into all sorts of questions.
Most related to CBD but if we know of other useful tools (berberine, magnesium glycinate, Vitamin D, Siberian Rhubarb, etc), we'll send them the research based on their needs. See our Anxiety Toolkit as an example!
We actually want to help people because we've been there.
Spiralling down with no help in sight from doctors.
Truly heartbreaking place to be and if we can help someone get out, that justifies all of this. The millon+ words of deep dive research.
Just look at the research
We partially do this for ourselves but if thousands or millions of people can take control of their own health, it's all worth it.
Check out:
3rd party testing results and walk through
Contact us
Ways to Save
Our Story
Send us an email a or use chat box (bottom, right) let us know your situation. We're excited to help!
Always work with a doctor or naturopath with any supplement!
The information provided here is not intended to treat an illness or substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified healthcare provider.
Indigo Naturals aims to be transparent and provide our customers with the information they need to feel confident in their purchases with us. Our commitment to quality is in every aspect of or production. No pesticides, fertilizers or other chemicals. We use the supercritical carbon dioxide extraction process and never use solvents. Our production process meets the Good Manufacturing Processes (cGMP) for cleanliness, traceability and consistency.
We want you to know what your are buying, therefore we are happy to provide third party test results for our products. Each batch of Indigo Naturals CBD oil goes through rigorous testing and following strict hemp production laws.
